July 11, 2012
11:30 AM (EDT)

News Release Number: STScI-2012-32

Hubble Discovers a Fifth Moon Orbiting Pluto

Technical facts about this news release:

About the Object

Object Name:

P5, S/2012 (134340) 1

Object Description:

Fifth Discovered Moon of Pluto

Distance:

Although its orbit is highly eccentric, Pluto's average distance from the Sun is 39.44 astronomical units (roughly 3.6 billion miles or 5.9 billion kilometers). P5's distance from Pluto is 26,000 miles or 42,000 kilometers.

Dimensions:

Pluto has a diameter of roughly 1,416 miles (2,280 kilometers) at the equator.

This image was originally black and white and recorded only overall brightness. These brightness values were translated into a range of bluish hues. Such color "maps" can be useful in helping to distinguish subtly-varying brightness in an image. The colors in this image are not what human eyes would see looking at Pluto.